Israel is insane and western countries are supporting that insanity. Maybe insanity is contagious. Or maybe it is a product of greed and blindness to the environment, the earth and the creatures who live on it.
I agree with your assessment that the Israeli leadership is insane, but I would go further. All the leaders in the West are, I believe, also insane. They believe their own lies and cannot move away from that. In support of my statement, I would say examine their reactions to the Ukraine tragedy, which shows that they also, paradoxically, do not believe their own lies enough to put their own bodies or words on the line. Only the Ukrainians, or some of them, and the Russians, have any skin in the game. They are lacking in faith in what they say they believe. It is very curious.
The saying "Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad ", sometimes given in Latin as Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat (literally: Those whom God wishes to destroy, he first deprives of reason) or Quem Iuppiter vult perdere, dementat prius (literally: Those whom Jupiter wishes to destroy, he first deprives of reason) has been used in English literature since at least the 17th century. Although sometimes falsely attributed to Euripides, the phrase does have classical Greek antecedents.
The phrase "Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad" first appears in English in exactly this form in the Reverend William Anderson Scott's book Daniel, a Model for Young Men (1854) and is attributed to a "heathen proverb." The phrase later appears in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "The Masque of Pandora" (1875) and other places.
Settler colonial regimes are typically mad, yes – look at the United States, what it has become over its lifespan, certainly trying to drag the whole world down with it. Invasions (in Latin America, South East Asia, Middle East & Africa), proxy wars, assassinations & coups (including attempts), genocide (of indigenous peoples) and slavery (of Africans).
Support for Israel in America is at its lowest in my lifetime. I’ve heard from several apolitical people who are critical of American support for Israel’s crimes.
Thank you, Dr. Finkelstein, for your authentically honest guest appearance on System Update with Glenn Greenwald this evening. Your astute observations and humbly straight-forward, well-articulated view makes more sense to me (and my hubs) than anything else i've watched, heard or read since Oct. 7th last year. Of course, my biggest worry is that OUR American troops will be brought in to fight such a land war on the side of our so-called 'ally' if the scenario you described comes to pass. You are a true American treasure, Professor.
The insanity - be it sociopathy, paranoia, or a national personality disorder - is the inevitable consequence of prolonged persecution, a persecution which led to Israel’s ethnostate foundation, from which there appears to be no possibility of an escape, either for Zionist Jews or potentially Palestinians. The victimhood is further impacted by the allegations that Jews made little or no attempt to escape their fate and were imprisoned and liquidated ‘passively’.
Professor Finkelstein acknowledges this in his reference to his mother’s own testimony to her feelings about the firebombing of Dresden which he regrets as ‘ignoble’ in her statement that she made referring to the event as ‘We might as well take some of them with us’.
Using this unfortunate, but nevertheless understandable sentiment provides a context for this march toward ‘insanity’ as a perfectly human reaction to individual and collective oppression, with one very specific exception; Hamas DID escape, albeit temporarily, their oppressors prison, and in so doing mounted an insurrection which the Zionists simply cannot bear such a turning of the tables whereby the impunity with which Israel has continued to act since 1947 has been utterly disrupted. This in turn resonates with every Israeli Jew who is both outraged by Hamas’ violence and shamed by their resistance and successful breach of this impunity.
It’s a collective and individual shame felt by everyone, in particular Netanyahu and Ben Gvir who see themselves as survivors who bear responsibility to protect their people, ‘never again’ from such a reversal, and to any potential possibility of ever submitting to passive immolation by goyim.
I won’t pretend that I know but one solution to this paradox other, perhaps, than the liquidation of Israel itself. It is its own Golem, created like Frankenstein’s monster from the corpses of the murdered and dismembered bodies of unholy atrocities and supernatural beliefs.
Maybe genocide is the only thing they understand?
Us westerners know only how to inflict it, not to suffer it.
I'm not in the least sorry for the Zionists any more. They have weaponized the Nazi Holocaust to further their own agenda and they have lost the respect of most of the world, including mine. "Prolonged persecution"? Pshaw
Thank you, Professor! A tough read on a Sunday morning, but a necessary one. I can’t think of anything but Gotterdamerung - how very Wagnerian of the Israelis; even Hitler would approve.
I hope this message finds you well. My name is Ibrahim, and I am writing to you from Gaza, where our lives have been shattered by relentless conflict. Amidst the ruins of our homes and the devastation that surrounds us, hope is fading fast.
As a renowned advocate for the Palestinian cause, your voice holds immense power to bring attention to our plight. We are in desperate need of support to rebuild our shattered lives and restore some semblance of normalcy to our community.
I humbly implore you to lend your voice to our cause and help us spread the word about our fundraising campaign. Your generosity can make a world of difference in the lives of countless families who have lost everything.
Please consider sharing our fundraising link with your followers and supporters, and together, let us work towards rebuilding Gaza and restoring hope to its people.
Our overlords have their reasons for doing what they do, they may put forth some unhinged rationale, but is this not all about resources? Why is Iran the enemy? Do we want their resources? Do western governments present other powers as enemies so we support invasion and confiscation of those countries’ natural resources? I just wonder at the end of the day if despite stated ideological rationales, if this is just about land and what’s in it.
And then on destabilization of other governments and regime change, it’s to get people to not object when we invade and steal.
As a direct consequence of the Holocaust, Israel and the Jewish people have, over decades, assiduously constructed various ramparts to give effect to their shibboleth “never again”. It amassed great wealth, built a country (and in the process destroyed another), created the best fighting force in the Middle East and an intelligence network at home and abroad that is venerated in that community for its efficiency and savagery. It has also spent an inordinate amount of resources to become the preeminent influencer in western politics and academia.
These achievements, coupled with victories in wars and skirmishes with Arab forces, have created the egomaniacal, hubristic monster that is Israel today. Israel, as a nation has predicated its existence on these bulwarks it has created. In the process of building this fortress around itself and its people (and the continual assault on the Palestinian people) alright, they have also excluded the goodwill of nations. As a result Israel and its Jewish people have no real friends. It has to twist arms, bully, bribe nations and especially its rulers, to be its friend and ally.
It has no other defence for its despicable behaviour other than the victim hood it claims of a Holocaust (perpetrated by the German people but accursed to the entire world) which gives rise to labelling its detractors as antisemites and Jew haters. Israel for all its prodigious achievements could have been a force for good. I can only imagine what could have been accomplished in the Middle East if Israel chose the Godlike path of Good Samaritan. Instead, it chose diabolical hatred with all its inexorable ills.
I am not a psychologist and do not claim to be sufficiently versed in psychology to be prognostic. I can only rely on my many years of experience as a prosecutor, my observations, reading and logic to understand the pathology of the Jewish people.
Their leaders are not mad people. They are callous, insincere, arrogant, egocentric, narcissistic and exhibit all the other qualities of psychopaths. The Jewish nation displays all the symptoms of a 1940s German people, cheering on their leaders to a superior form of barbarity.
To call them certifiably mad, would create an escape route, a legal defence for the criminal behaviour. The Jewish people and their leaders must never have this excuse. Not in history, not at judgement day (if such a a time will exist) and certainly not at The Hague.
Israel is insane and western countries are supporting that insanity. Maybe insanity is contagious. Or maybe it is a product of greed and blindness to the environment, the earth and the creatures who live on it.
I agree with your assessment that the Israeli leadership is insane, but I would go further. All the leaders in the West are, I believe, also insane. They believe their own lies and cannot move away from that. In support of my statement, I would say examine their reactions to the Ukraine tragedy, which shows that they also, paradoxically, do not believe their own lies enough to put their own bodies or words on the line. Only the Ukrainians, or some of them, and the Russians, have any skin in the game. They are lacking in faith in what they say they believe. It is very curious.
Power not only corrupts, it intoxicates. Then comes madness. We are witnessing the pathology of power in action.
The saying "Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad ", sometimes given in Latin as Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat (literally: Those whom God wishes to destroy, he first deprives of reason) or Quem Iuppiter vult perdere, dementat prius (literally: Those whom Jupiter wishes to destroy, he first deprives of reason) has been used in English literature since at least the 17th century. Although sometimes falsely attributed to Euripides, the phrase does have classical Greek antecedents.
The phrase "Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad" first appears in English in exactly this form in the Reverend William Anderson Scott's book Daniel, a Model for Young Men (1854) and is attributed to a "heathen proverb." The phrase later appears in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "The Masque of Pandora" (1875) and other places.
Thank you for this insight.
Mr. Finkelstein wisdom is a breath of fresh air in the chaos that surrounds us in these times.
"In 1989, during the Tiananmen Square massacre"?
Like the current, horrific genocide in Xinjiang, the Tiananmen Square massacre was a media invention entirely.
As was Mao's 'great famine,' and 'human rights' offenses too numerous to list.
Good afternoon to you Dr. Finklestein. Powerful argument. Just wanted to say that I am profoundly thankful for your presence in the public square.
Settler colonial regimes are typically mad, yes – look at the United States, what it has become over its lifespan, certainly trying to drag the whole world down with it. Invasions (in Latin America, South East Asia, Middle East & Africa), proxy wars, assassinations & coups (including attempts), genocide (of indigenous peoples) and slavery (of Africans).
Support for Israel in America is at its lowest in my lifetime. I’ve heard from several apolitical people who are critical of American support for Israel’s crimes.
Thank you, Dr. Finkelstein, for your authentically honest guest appearance on System Update with Glenn Greenwald this evening. Your astute observations and humbly straight-forward, well-articulated view makes more sense to me (and my hubs) than anything else i've watched, heard or read since Oct. 7th last year. Of course, my biggest worry is that OUR American troops will be brought in to fight such a land war on the side of our so-called 'ally' if the scenario you described comes to pass. You are a true American treasure, Professor.
The insanity - be it sociopathy, paranoia, or a national personality disorder - is the inevitable consequence of prolonged persecution, a persecution which led to Israel’s ethnostate foundation, from which there appears to be no possibility of an escape, either for Zionist Jews or potentially Palestinians. The victimhood is further impacted by the allegations that Jews made little or no attempt to escape their fate and were imprisoned and liquidated ‘passively’.
Professor Finkelstein acknowledges this in his reference to his mother’s own testimony to her feelings about the firebombing of Dresden which he regrets as ‘ignoble’ in her statement that she made referring to the event as ‘We might as well take some of them with us’.
Using this unfortunate, but nevertheless understandable sentiment provides a context for this march toward ‘insanity’ as a perfectly human reaction to individual and collective oppression, with one very specific exception; Hamas DID escape, albeit temporarily, their oppressors prison, and in so doing mounted an insurrection which the Zionists simply cannot bear such a turning of the tables whereby the impunity with which Israel has continued to act since 1947 has been utterly disrupted. This in turn resonates with every Israeli Jew who is both outraged by Hamas’ violence and shamed by their resistance and successful breach of this impunity.
It’s a collective and individual shame felt by everyone, in particular Netanyahu and Ben Gvir who see themselves as survivors who bear responsibility to protect their people, ‘never again’ from such a reversal, and to any potential possibility of ever submitting to passive immolation by goyim.
I won’t pretend that I know but one solution to this paradox other, perhaps, than the liquidation of Israel itself. It is its own Golem, created like Frankenstein’s monster from the corpses of the murdered and dismembered bodies of unholy atrocities and supernatural beliefs.
Maybe genocide is the only thing they understand?
Us westerners know only how to inflict it, not to suffer it.
I'm not in the least sorry for the Zionists any more. They have weaponized the Nazi Holocaust to further their own agenda and they have lost the respect of most of the world, including mine. "Prolonged persecution"? Pshaw
Thank you, Professor! A tough read on a Sunday morning, but a necessary one. I can’t think of anything but Gotterdamerung - how very Wagnerian of the Israelis; even Hitler would approve.
Subject: Urgent Appeal for Help from Gaza
Dear Norman Finkelstein,
I hope this message finds you well. My name is Ibrahim, and I am writing to you from Gaza, where our lives have been shattered by relentless conflict. Amidst the ruins of our homes and the devastation that surrounds us, hope is fading fast.
As a renowned advocate for the Palestinian cause, your voice holds immense power to bring attention to our plight. We are in desperate need of support to rebuild our shattered lives and restore some semblance of normalcy to our community.
I humbly implore you to lend your voice to our cause and help us spread the word about our fundraising campaign. Your generosity can make a world of difference in the lives of countless families who have lost everything.
Please consider sharing our fundraising link with your followers and supporters, and together, let us work towards rebuilding Gaza and restoring hope to its people.
With heartfelt gratitude,
Ibrahim
https://gogetfunding.com/help-us-to-rebuild-our-lives
Our overlords have their reasons for doing what they do, they may put forth some unhinged rationale, but is this not all about resources? Why is Iran the enemy? Do we want their resources? Do western governments present other powers as enemies so we support invasion and confiscation of those countries’ natural resources? I just wonder at the end of the day if despite stated ideological rationales, if this is just about land and what’s in it.
And then on destabilization of other governments and regime change, it’s to get people to not object when we invade and steal.
As a direct consequence of the Holocaust, Israel and the Jewish people have, over decades, assiduously constructed various ramparts to give effect to their shibboleth “never again”. It amassed great wealth, built a country (and in the process destroyed another), created the best fighting force in the Middle East and an intelligence network at home and abroad that is venerated in that community for its efficiency and savagery. It has also spent an inordinate amount of resources to become the preeminent influencer in western politics and academia.
These achievements, coupled with victories in wars and skirmishes with Arab forces, have created the egomaniacal, hubristic monster that is Israel today. Israel, as a nation has predicated its existence on these bulwarks it has created. In the process of building this fortress around itself and its people (and the continual assault on the Palestinian people) alright, they have also excluded the goodwill of nations. As a result Israel and its Jewish people have no real friends. It has to twist arms, bully, bribe nations and especially its rulers, to be its friend and ally.
It has no other defence for its despicable behaviour other than the victim hood it claims of a Holocaust (perpetrated by the German people but accursed to the entire world) which gives rise to labelling its detractors as antisemites and Jew haters. Israel for all its prodigious achievements could have been a force for good. I can only imagine what could have been accomplished in the Middle East if Israel chose the Godlike path of Good Samaritan. Instead, it chose diabolical hatred with all its inexorable ills.
I am not a psychologist and do not claim to be sufficiently versed in psychology to be prognostic. I can only rely on my many years of experience as a prosecutor, my observations, reading and logic to understand the pathology of the Jewish people.
Their leaders are not mad people. They are callous, insincere, arrogant, egocentric, narcissistic and exhibit all the other qualities of psychopaths. The Jewish nation displays all the symptoms of a 1940s German people, cheering on their leaders to a superior form of barbarity.
To call them certifiably mad, would create an escape route, a legal defence for the criminal behaviour. The Jewish people and their leaders must never have this excuse. Not in history, not at judgement day (if such a a time will exist) and certainly not at The Hague.
Iqbal: What is the most important point that you are making in the above message?
Get help.